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Jareb's Hired Men
Jareb's hired men are a trio of ruffians named Tanis, Zadok, and Samadin, whom the Witch of Endor Aziza's brother Jareb frequently engages for various shady jobs. The first time Branan encounters the three men, the gang of scoundrels claim to be the municipal transportation guild of Lod and accost the Hebrew outside a local inn. When they demand that Branan pay a ten-shekel freight tax for transporting cargo through their town, he refuses to surrender the toll and subsequently brawls with the imposters. At this point, Jareb's sister Aziza intervenes and assures Branan that the confrontation was merely a test. After Aziza is ostensibly abducted by Lod's night creatures and taken to their lair in the catacombs underneath the city, Jareb hires the trio and Branan to help rescue the girl. As the rescue party sweeps the subterranean tombs for any sign of Aziza, the three mercenaries get picked off mysteriously, one by one, with Zadok being the first man to disappear. After Zadok goes missing, Samadin and Tanis complain that they're not being paid enough to face dangers the likes of these, and Jareb mercilessly barks that they're free to leave if they want to. Aware that they are safer remaining together, Samadin and Tanis elect to stay with Branan and Jareb, searching for Aziza. Eventually, Tanis spots Aziza bound to a sacrificial altar in the underground shrine dedicated to the goddess Ashtoreth. After freeing Aziza from the altar, the four men become surrounded by night creatures. In a desperate move, Samadin thrusts his torch out at one of the ogres and discovers that the demonic minions detest light. Unfortunately, Samadin's maneuver makes one of the ogres so angry that he grabs Samadin by the neck, and the two roll into a large hole in the wall. Two monsters grab Branan and, in the same way Samadin did, Branan and the night creatures roll into another hole in the wall. While thus alone, Branan cries out to the Lord for supernatural sight in the darkness. Branan swings his mallet, knocking back the remaining ogres in the tunnel. He then trudges back up the tunnel where Aziza and Jareb are and, noticing the absence of Tanis, wonders what happened to him. Jareb informs Branan that Tanis was "not so fortunate" to have survived while Branan was gone. Although Jareb's hired men are never seen again after their encounter with the nocturnal minions in Lod's catacombs, it is entirely possible that they survived the attack and were merely kidnapped instead. Keeping in mind that Aziza is the true Witch of Endor, the reader knows she was never in any real danger in the catacombs, as the night demons are creatures completely under her control. It would make no sense for her, through her ogre-like monsters, to eliminate either Jareb's men (strong warriors whom Jareb would likely want to remain in his employ) and Branan, whom Aziza desperately wants to assist her in the retrieval of the bronze staff from Amalek's citadel. Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Philistines Category:Minor Characters